Just a thought… I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned, the hard way, that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next. Delicious Ambiguity. [Gilda Radner]

Welcome to Wednesday and thanks for being here. Oh, it was heartbreaking to read so many people’s own stories of distancing from elderly parents in the comments section of my Facebook page in response to yesterday’s picture of my dad and lady friend in their masks. It just goes to show you that no matter what you’re going through or how very solitary you may feel, you are never alone.

One woman even said how badly she needed a hug, and got them online right there on the page. I’m happy to see that Facebook truly can be good for something other than people dumping all over the PM or explaining why we should have the rights to guns that eviscerate their targets. (If you’re that bad a hunter, maybe it’s not your thing?)

Anyway….

It’s all getting pretty confusing, isn’t it? Here in BC we’re hearing of a gradual loosening of the self-isolation rules, but how widely and when? While healthcare workers make up about a fifth of all COVID-19 cases, there are still calls here for more PPE; masks are being reused like never before. And yet…loosening.

I’m not getting it. But I’ll do as I’m told. There’s a very real risk of spreading the disease before it’s eradicated (which won’t happen until there’s a vaccine or it dies off as SARS did 17 years ago); how cautious will we have to be?

So many questions with much at stake.

We’re hearing the words “the new normal” a lot these days. With so much evolving, for a great many people, what they do will depend upon whom they believe and where they get their news. Heaven help us, the lunatic fringe has as loud a voice as anyone – sometimes louder – and it’s difficult even for the biggest skeptics among us to discern what’s true and what’s not.

More importantly, the question to ask is who is behind it, and why? Some people defy and deny advice and orders in a time like this because they either hate government, or hate this government. Logic be damned, I can’t stand the guy in Ottawa, they think.

Even a beautiful piece like the Heritage Minute put out to salute the 75th anniversary of Canada’s liberation of the Netherlands, posted this week, had comments from the hard-of-thinking calling the PM a “Nazi” over his stance on guns. If these pampered basement- dwellers had any idea of the challenges faced during real hardship, they’d eat their misspelled words.

Here’s that piece (with comments turned off, thankfully) and, yes, that is the voice of Peter Mansbridge.

Oh, and finally today, back to masks. Rob was completely delighted to find this link on the weekend and each day as I sit down to write and muse aloud, “Hmm…what is tomorrow’s journal going to be about?” he asks if I’ve shared his discovery yet!

So, without further ado, how to change the settings on your iPhone so that it will recognize you with a mask on. Here’s the link. There. Now my editor is happy, and so am I!

Back with you here tomorrow. Stay well.